Stories by Barnaby Monk

Sunday 7Ché Café stages a Soda Bar–curated show Sunday night, featuring punk-n-roll Bellingham band the Shook Ones. Been some time since I’ve seen this band’s name on a bill or record-release one-sheet, so I’m not ...

Thursday 4A band called Sissy Spacek. Surewhynot. The West Coast duo of John Wiese (strings) and Charlie Mumma (skins) are more sound collagists than songsmiths. The schitzy grind project, though prolific in its output over ...

Thursday 28“We could get so famous that we both get shot, but right now I’m in the shower.” Touring behind one of last year’s catchiest records, Brooklyn garage-glam band PWR BTTM hit the Hideout Thursday ...

Sunday 24There’s always a “final countdown” somewhere, and the band Europe will be there — including your office lunchroom — planting that ’80s earworm in your head. It’s clogging up my brain as I type ...

Thursday 21I always get nostalgic for the ’90s when I see Mike Doughty’s name pop up. Back then downtown had some substantive bars, like the Green Circle, where you could catch out-of-town up-and-comers such as ...

Thursday 14Classic-rock band Blue Öyster Cult are radio-famous for hits such as “Godzilla” and “(Don’t Fear) the Reaper,” but they are YouTube-famous for the hilarious Saturday Night Live skit “More cowbell!” You know the one. ...

Sunday 17Devotchka plays world music with an edge. Lots of edges, actually — the burlesque frontwoman was married to shock-rocker Marilyn Manson. Before you head up to Belly Up on Sunday, you can read all ...

San Diego clubs kicking it off with the Sess, Ziggy Shuffledust, Big Sandy, and the Generators

Thursday 31San Diego garage-punks the Sess will reunite for a night at Soda Bar New Year’s Eve. The catchy quintet was a San Diego Music Awards nominee around the time their band-breaking Agendumb record dropped, ...

Sunday 3Bringing back the mullet! It’ll be business up front and party in the back when Austin bluegrass band Whiskey Shivers and them Americana road dogs in Goodnight, Texas get together to co-headline sets up ...

Thursday 24Happy hols, y’all. The clubbety crawler’s going to be understandably low on quantity this holiday week, but bulging with big-Q Quality. For inst., Thursday night rings in the Casbah’s annual Exile on Kettner, where ...

Sunday 27There are two kinds of alt-rock fans: Cracker fans and Camper Van Beethoven fans, so the frontman for both bands, David Lowery, has got you covered. In advance of their split bill at Belly ...

Alice Cooper, Freightshakers, Bulletproof Stockings, and the best of the rest in San Diego clubs this week

Sunday 20“All bad things must come to an end” is how the hard-rock staples Mötley Crüe and Alice Cooper describe their final tour together, which rolls through town at Viejas Arena and wraps with three ...

Sunday 6L.A.’s purveyors of sci-fi garage-punk the Zig Zags light up at Soda Bar Sunday night. Take last year’s self-titled In the Red record for a spin on the web, esp. head shredders “Brainded Warrior,” ...

...plus Little Hurricane blows into town, while Deadbolt and Schizophonics blow out of town

Thursday 3It’s the American in me that never wonders why/ Kennedy was murdered by the F-B-I! Update a few of the lyrics to the Avengers’ indictment of blind patriotism, “The American in Me,” and Penelope ...

Thursday 26Have a tryptophantastic holiday, Crawler followers, for tomorrow we rock! Friday 27The band that has more hooks than a hillbilly’s tackle box, Nashville Pussy, is on tour this winter celebrating the release of their ...

Thursday 19Tinnitus unite us! From Eugene, Oregon, the mighty Yob takes the stage at Brick by Brick behind their latest record, the crushing Clearing the Path to Ascend. Four tracks clocking in at just over ...

Sunday 22Beery band Lucero will belly up to Belly Up Sunday night. The Memphis septet morphs country into punky roots-n-roll and writes some real fist pumpers. Except on this year’s pensive All a Man Should ...

Sunday 15Acoustic Squeeze! Come get some “Black Coffee in Bed,” “Pulling Mussels,” “Don’t Dream It’s Over,” and “Tempted” when English pop-rock duo Difford & Tilbrook put on a singer/songwriter clinic at House of Blues.... From ...

Sunday 8According to Sub Pop on its one-sheet for Olympia power trio Strange Wilds, the band’s latest has “a freight train, several buzzsaws, a banshee, and some heavy, heavy Pacific doom-and-gloom up in the mix.” ...

Thursday 29With their attention to production and texture, Failure were/are the Pink Floyd of alternative rock, the missing link to Muse, if you’re into them. Overshadowed by grunge radio, Failure had a brief but loud ...

Sunday 25Sunday-nite lite: indie-folkies William Fitzsimmons and Jake Phillips split a bill at Casbah...New York darkwave duo MS MR bring their How Does It Feel tour to House of Blues...while Swedish pop-rock four-piece Royal Concept ...

Sunday 18Black meets Pink, East meets West, and flower-punk meets art-damaged pop as Atlanta band Black Lips team up with L.A.’s Ariel Pink to co-headline sets at the Observatory North Park on Sunday. Last year ...

Thursday 8Canada band Sheepdogs bring their brand of boogie rock to town Thursday night. The ten-year-old Saskatoon troupe is touring in support of their brand new record, Future Nostalgia, a set that gets classic guitar ...

Sunday 11Soda Bar stages Off with Their Heads on Sunday. The Minneapolis four-piece trades in melodic hardcore seasoned with straight-ahead punk rock, and it looks as if they are picking up a tour that was ...

Thursday 24“Specializing in punk solutions since 2005,” alt-rock Jersey boys Titus Andronicus are touring through town in support of this year’s 29-track, 93-minute rock opera The Most Lamentable Tragedy. The Reader’s Dryw Keltz had a ...

Sunday 27Tennis System, out of Echo Park via DC, is one of L.A.’s bands ready to break, according to L.A. Weekly, for their “thick-reverb mélange of jangling guitars and ’90s shoegaze.” Sounds yummy. Take a ...

Johnette Napolitano comes to town, as does Mystic Braves and Destruction Unit

Thursday 10Former Concrete Blonde singer/bassist Johnette Napolitano has been leading a quiet life out in Joshua Tree with her horses, dogs, and found art, reflecting on the sorts of things that ended up in her ...

ZZ Top and Blackberry Smoke, The Who, Wavves, and Hum all hit town this week

Sunday 13Texas trio ZZ Top and Atlanta band Blackberry Smoke bring their “Grooves and Gravy” tour to Humphreys by the Bay on Sunday. In 2004, Billy Gibbons, Dusty Hill, and Frank Beard were inducted into ...

Donkeys, Dam-Funk, Dickies, Ducktails, and the best of the rest in Diego this weekend

Thursday 3Local desert-rock Donkeys clop into Casbah Thursday night. Da Donks have had a busy 2015, touring in support of their fourth record of sun-baked Cali rock, Ride the Black Wave. Ken Leighton caught up ...

Plus Volar Records turns six, celebrates at Whistle Stop; and another San Diego Freakout at Casbah

Thursday 27So, the Melvins/Big Business gig sold out Casbah Thursday night. Go ahead, take a minute.... Okay? Okay. The power-pop singer/songwriter Thomas Walsh, aka Pugwash, is a hit in his native Ireland, where he’s flourished ...

Thursday 20Former Smiths frontman Morrissey checks into the Observatory for two nights of pouty — and often hilarious — pop crooning Thursday and Friday nights. Morrissey is touring in support of his latest comeback, World ...

Plus King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard and Black Cobra slither through town

Sunday 23The new ladies of London punk, Savages, are touring through town this weekend. The impact of Siouxsie Sioux and Joy Division on Savages’ sound on their breakout debut Silence Yourself is a minor speedbump ...

Thursday 13Sounds like the Flintstones meet the Jetsons at this year’s Tiki Oasis, as the annual cocktail-nation confab promises to premodernize “Tomorrowland” style. “We here at Tiki Oasis will take you on warp speed from ...

Sunday 16Straight outta Berserktown: art-punk Canada band Fucked Up will be missing the Royal Trux set at the Observatory Sunday night because they’ll be playing Casbah. The post-core six-piece is touring in support of Glass ...

with Coliseum, Delta Saints, Tame Impala, and Hurray for the Riff Raff

Sunday 2Welcome to Rock and Roll Heaven, Steve Rodriguez. The Dragons/Saint Shameless bassist passed away last week leaving a gaping hole in the San Diego music scene, and he will be memorialized as he should, ...

Thursday 30From Northern Ireland, ca. 1977, Stiff Little Fingers were a Clash-grabbing lot that played punk through their homeland’s “troubles.” Over the years, the Fingers held onto the Irish but tossed the punk for power-pop ...

Sunday 26On Sunday, South Sudanese soul-rapper (and former child soldier) Emmanuel Jal’s at Soda Bar. Jal raps in Arabic, English, Swahili, Dinka, and Nuer, and he is touring in support of his new joint, The ...

What's happening in San Diego clubs Thursday–Saturday, July 23 through 25

Thursday 23Double double trouble. No, I don’t have that In-N-Out urge, there’re a couple double bills in town Thursday night, and as of this typing I haven’t decided which one to rock. Sticking with the ...